Mike and the Gem Knights
by Abookwithwords
Summary: Your average teenage blacksmith with psychic powers lives a normal life, but when he meets the Gem Knights, all changes for the better and the worse.
1. The Bloodstone

The story of the Bloodstone

Outside of Beach City, in Lakeside town...

My name is Mike. People define me in the "Weird" class. I'm a fan of videogames and anime, and I don't care if I'm judged because of how I shelter myself in my own house during the weekend because of it. However, the reason why I'm really weird to everyone is because I was born with weird psychic powers that let me read people's minds or look into their past. I can also predict what is about to happen, but I never react fast enough to avoid it or change it. Either way, that's not the point; let me tell you what happened earlier this morning.

I work in a jewelry business with my dad. We mine, craft, and sell gem related merchandise...or at least we used to. Recently, I was mining for gems with a classic pickaxe instead of a machine to operate, and I came across a slightly cracked, spherical bloodstone, my favorite kind of gem. However, it was glowing, and I could feel power radiating from it. I touched it, and a light began to shine off of it.

The light began to move away from the gem and shape itself into the shape of a person. The gem reappeared in the shape's right arm. The light faded away, and a woman took its place. She had a noble look to her, and she was dressed in warrior's armor from the medieval age, though the armor looked cracked and dented. She had white hair, and her eyes were clear, no pupils or anything. I walked up to her, but she swiftly backed away. She tapped the gem on her arm, and a gigantic hammer appeared out of nowhere. She carried it behind her back with one hand. She stared at me with rage as if I did something.

"You... You killed Amber!" She shouted with her veins pulsing out of the side of her head.

"What?" I replied as I glared at her with anxiety and curiosity, "Who is Amber?"

"Be quiet!"

The mysterious being gripped her hammer. I predicted how she was going to strike me and saw a silhouette of her smashing my skull in directly. I instantly took a step backwards of the strike, barely dodging it, and she slammed it into the ground in front of me. I didn't get hit, but the impact of the hit alone sent me flying into a stone wall behind me. I felt highly damaged. The mysterious being lifted me by my arm and pulled up the sleeves of my jacket. Her hammer disappeared. She looked shocked and disappointed. Her eyes glowed white, and then so did mine.

I accidently activated one of my other psychic abilities: Memory Reader. I learned that her name was Bloodstone through telepathy. 

-_Bloodstone's most recent memory:  
_

_(All narrated in Bloodstone's honorable sounding voice)_

4923 years ago, Bloodstone and Amber were partners in the gem war. They had a third gem leader who had an army, and she was green, but she wasn't around at the time. Bloodstone still had her hammer, and she had green pupils in her eyes. Amber had a healing staff. They knew that they might get killed, but their home world exiled them to earth, so they had no choice. They stuck together because they were best friends. However, they were ambushed by a gem. 

The ambusher looked like me. She had long, spiky hair just like me. In fact, she had the same details I had besides for her having gray skin, so I hope she's some kind of tomboy. She had two sharp white daggers and two fluorite gems on her forearms. "Two easy gems, huh?" She said, "Wait, you two are the exiles, aren't you?" 

"Florence, we don't have to fight-" Amber said in a shy tone.

Florence vanished before their eyes. Amber and Bloodstone began to search their surroundings with their weapons ready, but they couldn't see her. They didn't notice the footsteps surrounding them. It looked as if Florence was circling them. Eventually, a footstep appeared behind Amber, and the white daggers pierced through Amber's chest.

Bloodstone heard the sound of pierced skin and turned for Amber. She stood in shock. Amber's eyes rolled back, and her body vanished leaving nothing but an amber gem. Florence revealed herself, grabbed the Amber gem and held it in front of Bloodstone's face.

"Weren't you told to never to fight alongside your best friend?" Her grip began to increase until the gem slightly began to crack. "Friendships break easily" Florence shattered the Amber in front of Bloodstone's face, killing Amber. "Like so"

The shattered gem shards fell in front of Bloodstone. She stared at the shards with fear….

—Everything became static like on a TV—

Bloodstone dropped me and backed away, and I stayed on the ground in pain. Our eyes stopped glowing. "You're not Florence?" She asked as she tilted her head to the left.

"No, I'm Mike" I said. I rolled on to my back to kind of ease the pain. "You're name is… Bloodstone?"

She backed away in shock. She summoned her hammer again, making me nervous again, so I glared at her. Again. When my body began to predict what she was gonna do with the hammer, I couldn't tell what she was about to do because I saw silhouettes of her smashing the gigantic hammer through my skull. However, there was one silhouette that didn't move at all.

"How do you know my name" She asked. It didn't even sound like she was asking, but instead, more demanding.

I made a heavy sigh of relief, happy that I wasn't going to get my head smashed in. "I might have tapped into your memories with my psychic abilities" I said, "Who's Amber, though?"

Her eyes opened wide in shock. She hunched her back and covered her face with her hands. She began to scream in pain, and she disappeared. Her cracked gem fell to the ground. I had no idea what it possibly meant.

_Let's see, she's a "Rock Sentient Humanoid/Being" like that blog said. Apparently, her life source is that gem of hers. I wonder if she's still wounded because the gem is cracked… I'll repair it._

Ignoring the pain in my back, I picked up the gem and rushed out of the mine. Workers in the mine began to ask me why I was leaving, but I didn't answer. I took the gem to my Dad's "Smithy" in the garage of our house. I handed it to him while he was leaning back on his couch.

"Hey Dad, can you fix this?" I asked.

"You're old enough, so why don't you do it?" He asked me.

"Because she—" I was hushed by Dad.

"Oh, I see where this is going…" He smirked. "You fell in love with someone, didn't you?"

"Not this again…" I averted my eyes away from him.

Dad stood up took the gem from my hand. "Relax, kid, you may be my adopted son, but you still are family to me, so I'll help" 

I instantly became nervous, so I used my psychic powers to see what was going to happen. I saw silhouettes of his body tripping and dropping the gem or smashing it accidentally on the anvil. "Wait…" I said as I snatched the gem, "Maybe I'll do this one…"

"Alright, suit yourself, kiddo" He said as he sat back down.

He leaned back into the couch and watched me do this on my own. I placed the gem on the anvil. I closed my eyes and hummed a single low note. I saw all of the possible outcomes of my preferable methods. I would've done the same thing that my Dad would've done: smash it or make it worse. _Hmph._

_What is Michael doing?_ My dad thought, _He's still as emotionless as he ever was, but what's with this method of crafting? His psychic powers still weird me out._

"I'm repairing it, not making something to sell" I said to him.

"Was that out loud?" He asked as he backed up in his couch.

"No, I can just read your mind, remember?" I said as I stared at him.

_Right, right. _He thought.

I pulled out my iPhone and searched for methods of how to forge bloodstone. However, there was nothing along the lines of forging it but instead rival companies to my business just selling theirs. I placed the palm of my hand onto my forehead and made the same noise with a little more effort into it. _Hmph._

Without any other kind of option, I grabbed the tongs and used it to grab the bloodstone. The gem was glowing strongly, so I barely made the cracks of it touch the heated coals next to me. The gem was still glowing, and the cracks weren't changing. I pushed the bellows below me to heat the coals even hotter, and I pressed it a little farther into the coals. The cracks of the gem began to glow brighter with a fiery red.

I carried the gem with the tongs and placed it back on the anvil. The cracks of the gem were hot enough to connect to each other as long as they didn't cool before I could press them against each other. Using the hammer, I heavily pushed the cracks together, and they stuck together. I carried the gem with the tongs and dipped it into the water to speed the cooling process. I took it out after the fiery red heated spots stopped glowing.

I placed it on the anvil and watched for results. The gem was looked the exact same way it did when I found it but without the cracks. The gem was glowing even brighter than before. Bloodstone transformed into a human shape again. However, her eyes had green pupils, and her armor looked brand new, though it was the same. Dad stood up and gasped in shock.

"What the... Who is...? Where!?" Dad fainted.

I walked towards her for the second time. I tried to read her thoughts, but there was nothing. I stepped towards her slowly, and then I predicted what would happen in the next few seconds. She was about to either grab me by the collar and raise me off the ground, or she was going to...hug me? I took one more step to her, and she placed her hand on my shoulder and stared down at me with the green eyes, and I stared back with my white eyes.

"You" She said.

"Yes?" I replied. I placed my hands in my jacket pockets.

She suddenly lifted me by the collar of my shirt and raised me up off the ground. I wasn't surprised. I gave her the same emotionless glare I usually give, and she stared at me with the green eyes. It was a solid stare down, and my phone automatically played old western shoot out music.

"What did you do?" She asked.

"I repaired your gem" I answered, "It's kind of… you, in a way, so I wanted to… repair you?" I silenced my phone. _Why am I freakin' blushing so much?_

I saw that she grinned, unlike what I saw in my future sight. She gently placed me down and hugged me, like in my other future sight. I oddly found myself grinning back. That never really happened before, me grinning. I couldn't concentrate on my psychic powers to make sure that I could keep aware of my surroundings. But then I remembered: My back was still in pain.

"You can stop hugging…" I said as I tried to free myself from her grasp.

"The Gem Knights have a code, you know" She said as she stopped. "We have to follow those whom we owe our lives or our gems"

"Who're the Gem Knights?" I asked.

"Let's just say we're friends…" Before she tried to avoid it, I began to read her mind. Because she was thinking of several different things, I couldn't get it all clearly. _The Gem Knights… We were exiles who became an army… Fought in the Gem War… Gems were cracked, and some were killed… I do not know where the others are… Wait… Stop reading my mind!  
_  
She pushed me back, and the shove sent me flying through the wooden wall of the garage. I landed on the floor, and I stayed there. "Ow!" I shouted as I laid there. My back was in the most pain.

Bloodstone quickly ran over after seeing me laying down. She thought I was dead, but after realizing that I wasn't, she lifted me up by the collar again. I stared at her.

"Calmed down yet?" I asked, "You're pretty violent, you know"

"Do all humans do this? Read minds and everything?" She said. When I didn't say anything for 3 seconds, she shook me, making my back shake and hurt all at the same time. "Well? Do they?"

"All humans, no. Me and probably some rare few, yes" I answered.

"Why are you considered a normal person if—"

"Being 'normal' is an obsolete thought that constantly goes through my head" I said with a harsh tone followed with a glare. "Put. Me. Down"

She dropped me, and I crawled away. I made it to my small mattress on the far end of the garage, my bed, and fell laid there. She walked over to me as I turned away from her. Reading her mind, I knew she felt guilty…when she should have. She placed her hand on the most painful spot on my back. I grunted and cringed.

"Don't move" She said. "This will hurt, but then it won't"

She pulled me and pushed my spine back into place. I held in a thousand screams as I stayed where I was. She pulled me towards her and rolled me onto my back. She pushed my rib cages in, and I held in two thousand screams this time.

"Because your upper body was out of place, you're going probably going to also need your arms pushed back in place in too…" Bloodstone said as she neared me.

I pictured in my mind what was going to happen instead of seeing her future actions. I thought of her either breaking my arms or, with her strength, shattering them. I thought of how I would be useless at my father's job with no arms whatsoever. I immediately stood up and backed away. I made the fakest smile and waved both of my hands in front of her trying to tell her no.

"How about we don't?" I said.

I shook my back, and I realized that the pain was completely gone. I leaned left and right to check, and I noticed how my back felt highly relieved of the pain she caused me earlier. I leaned forward and realized my ribs were feeling even better too. For the first time in several years, I made an intentional smile.

"Wow, the pain's gone…" I reached my hand out for a hand shake, "I… thanks"

She grabbed and shook my hand with a smile. When she raised my hand up and down, she accidentally shook my body and slammed me into the ground on accident. I rolled over and groaned as I covered my nose. She gasped as she knelt over me. First, she helped me up, and then, she pushed my nose back into place. I held in three thousand screams because my nose is pretty sensitive.

Bloodstone left after thanking me for repairing her gem. Her armor, even without polishing, was still as shiny as ever. I was kind of glad that her gem was fixed, and that she would never injure my body again, but then a few days passed.

_A few days later…_

As I was behind the counter at my Dad's jewelry shop with a friend of mine, I was bored more than anything. There wasn't really as much fun in blacksmithing ever since Bloodstone left. I still put my heart into every earing, ring, and necklace I sell, but it just doesn't really feel the same. Several customers came in to get gifts, but then I saw a shady looking person looking at the bloodstones crafted into gold in the form of two rings.

She wore a dark red trench coat and a fedora over her head. She stared intensely at the jewelry as if she was going to steal it, so I looked into it. I'm not letting anyone touch jewelry that hasn't been paid for.

"Pay attention for customers, Dean, I'll be back" I said to him.

"Not a problem, my man, I got this!" He said, still excited as ever.

As I walked toward the shady character I read her mind. _So this is the jewelry, huh? This looks pretty cool, I wonder how humans do this._

_Wait, I know that voice, even though it's of someone's thoughts. _I thought. "Looking for something?" I asked her.

"A place to stay, if you don't mind" She said as she turned towards me. I know those green eyes from anywhere.

"Bloodstone?" I waved hello and backed away a considerable distance from her so that I wouldn't get hurt. "Good to see you again"

"And since you guys can repair gems and forgeable rocks, I would like you to repair these" She handed me an emerald and a black diamond, two very expensive gems. However, they were also glowing like her gem did a while ago. "I know you can read my mind to figure out why"

_These two gems are my best friends, you know. Save them, and they will be in your debt. And besides, we'll protect you from corrupted gems, and I still owe you my word, right?_ She thought.

_**Little did I know that my life would change forever when I befriended Bloodstone, and little did I know about the upcoming events in the future… **_


	2. Is this a game to you?

It has been two days ever since Bloodstone had started staying at my house. I had gotten used to it, but my Dad still hasn't. Whenever he sees her, he walks away, or when I'm with her, he would always drag me away and start a random, boring conversation. I just wonder what would happen when I'm at school and she's at home, alone with Dad. Again, though, that is not the concern of what happened earlier.

After shop hours the next day, Bloodstone and I worked on repairing the gems that she brought me. I first spent time examining the black diamond, though. It was the first time I had ever seen one in person, and it looked even better than the movies make it look. Even though I was admiring the epic qualities of one, though it was cracked, it was pissing off Bloodstone.

"Michael..." She said with her arms crossed.

"Yeah, I know" I said as I stopped to look at her. "It's just that I never worked with diamonds and emeralds in the same way I'd have to repair you"  
"Well, how do you work with the gems in the shop you own?" She asked with her arms still crossed, "It seems easy"

"Well..." I turned around and began to set up everything. "You see, we usually melt the gems with high enough heat into liquid metal..."

She shuddered.

I placed the tongs onto the steel stool next to the bellows and the forge. "Then we pour it into a mold into the desired shape. I repaired yours by heating your gem up hot enough to where your cracks were shapeable, and then I took a hammer..."

She shuddered again and backed away.

I placed my silver hammer next to the anvil. "And I heavily but gently pushed the cracks together so that they would connect"

She calmed down, but…

"Then you came out of the gem. Nothing bad, right?" Just as I turned around, I saw Bloodstone staring at me strangely. "What?"

"I thought I felt a little hot when my gem was no longer cracked..." She said, "But are you sure it will work?"

"I wouldn't be trying if it wasn't" I said as I placed it on the anvil. "From your memories, I don't want to try breaking them or anything"

"My memories, what do you mean-" Her eyes opened wide, and she looked at me angrily with red eyes. "You! I'll kill you!"

Bloodstone formed her gigantic hammer and walked towards me slowly. I backed away with the special gems in hand, waiting to see if she'd calm down. However, I was backed into the back of my garage with nowhere else to go. I read her mind.

_You killed Amber, and I'll avenge her! I will kill all scum like you, Florence!_

Bloodstone gripped her hammer and raised it behind her. She was about to swing it, but before the hammer could even touch me, I held the cracked gems in front of where the hammer would land. She paused her strike before it could even near the gems. Her eyes became green again as they were before as she stared at the gems.

"I am not Florence" I said to her, "Know that I am a human. I will repair your friends, so put the hammer away" I said slowly as I placed the diamond on the anvil.

Bloodstone made her hammer disappear. She knelt to the ground and began to sob. I could feel her sorrow because of how I saw her memories. I kind of began to regret mentioning her memories of before that war, whatever it was. I might be emotionless, but I'm not heartless.

"If you want to talk about it..." I said as I turned and scratched the back of my head.

She continued to sob. I reached out a hand to help her up, but she got up on her own. "I'll be outside..." She said softly.

Her crimson armor was instantly replaced with a trench coat and fedora. I couldn't control my psychic powers again, so I followed her. When she walked out of the door of the garage, so did I, but it was as if she just vanished. I looked left and right, but I didn't see any trace of her. I leaned on the wall next to the door and sighed.

'_I'll be outside' my ass. _I looked down on the grass I was standing on._ What's going on with my psychic powers? _I thought as I asked myself, _I can't control it whenever she's… I don't know. I guess the reparation is just gonna have to wait._

After slightly losing my inspiration to repair the gemstone, I began to walk around the city for inspiration, skipping past the jewelry shop. I looked at the sign at the door: 20% off emerald related merchandise. I began to walk faster. I stared at the cracked, glowing emerald that I didn't leave behind, but I didn't know why the being didn't come out yet. I stared at it even more.

"Umm… hello?" I said to it while walking, "Anyone in there?"

"Mike, what are you doing?" An unfamiliar feminine voice said. She moved the gem out of my face and stared at me as if I had did something wrong. I saw that it was someone I knew, a good customer named Brea who goes to my school. "Have you gone crazy from working with gems and jewelry?"

"Well…" Before I could answer, she continued.

"No wait, maybe you gained all of the emotions and began to go crazy from it!" She blurted out, "Just like some tranquil in the Dragon Age game series!"

"That only happened because— no wait, that's not what you asked, was it? Either way, I'm nothing like those… husks" I looked back at the gem. "Just curious about this particular Beryl emerald. It glows"

"Then sell it or something" Brea suggested, "It's probably ten times the cost for the regular kind"

"As true as that is, it's for repair, and I would probably get my ass kicked if I do" I said as I shivered from thinking about a large, crimson hammer. "And besides, 20% sale is still up for emeralds"

"True, true…" She looked away and held her hands together behind her back. "Think we can… hang out?"

I looked at the gemstone, and thought about it. _Now that I think about it, emerald is going to be tricky to fix, isn't it? Glass can't be heated without melting and solidifying, so I can't just put the cracks back together, I could just heat one side… Dammit, I have to focus!_

"I guess I have time to spare" I said with a blank expression.

"Great!" She said as she clapped and smiled. She even tilted her head to the side and closed her eyes. _Typical anime chick…_

"Then where are we going?" I asked as I looked around the city from where I was.

"We can go to the arcade! I hear that they illegally brought a game from Japan all the way to America!"

"Really?" I ask as if I were slightly interested, "Is it for beta testing?"

"It's for the gold star members, like me, but I can bring a single guest…" She nudged my shoulder. "We can play it as long as we like!"

"Sounds like a plan, doesn't it?" I said as I stared at the direction of the arcade.

She puffed up her cheeks and glared at me. "Man, you have to be more excited about it if I'm gonna take you to play games that gold members only can play, so try to act like it!"

"No thanks," I said as I reached into my pockets, "I just don't"

"I won't take you if you don't!" She shouted as she crossed her arms.

I was finally able to control my psychic powers again, so I read her mind. _Do it or I will never buy from your store again, you freaking robot! Otherwise, I will take a video!_

"You don't have to call me a robot, you know…" I said as I looked away.

Brea was shocked, and she slightly backed away. "How did you read my mind?"

"It's a gift" I said, "But do I really have to act excited?"

"I'm not telling you to act. I'm telling you to _be_ excited" She said with a smile.

_Damn it, I'm not acting excited for anything, even if it's for the best videogames illegally brought to America. What if…_ "Hey, did you hear about the new side-scrolling they made for the Spirit Morph Saga?" I asked, lying about it, "You know, Lisa and Archimicarus searching for the Father?"

"What!?" Her ears actually raised like a dog's would, "No way! Let's go!"

We began to walk to the arcade that was really only a few yards around the corner. However, when we arrived, there were police cars flashing blue lights, police interrogating people, and police tape covering the door. There were ambulances carrying away people in wheelchairs and in body bags. Highly curious, I walked over to see what was going on. Brea stayed close to me.

I first walked over to a wounded witness hobbling away. "Who did this?"

"I don't know what thing that did this was, but either way, I'm never coming back until it's gone forever!" He hobbled faster than I thought he could.

I was about to move to ask the next person what the deal was, but then Brea pulled me back around the corner. She pinned me onto the wall and commanded me, "Dude, don't try to fix problems that aren't worth fixing!"

"There's a reward to this kind of thing, you know" I replied, "And I like rewards"

She let go of me and still followed as I played detective. I didn't mind, but I guessed that she would become a burden later on. I then walked over to a police officer. "Did anyone draw a picture of who or what did this?"

"That's not what a police officer should show to any citizen, kid, move along" He said.

Shaking my head, I read his mind. _I'm open to bribes, but you don't know that…_

Glancing left and right quickly to see if anyone saw me, I pulled out my wallet and handed the cop 10 100 dollar bills rolled up. The officer's eyes opened wide as he unrolled the money. He immediately placed it in his pocket and pulled out a clipboard with a description of the cause/attacker and handed it to me. I looked closer into the picture and saw that it was the most unrealistic description I have ever seen.

The picture was of a monster with eight legs, multiple eyes, and a natural arachnid look to it. The size written on the far side of the paper said it was 6'7 in height. I pulled out my phone and took a picture of it.

"Kid, no photos of it allowed" The officer said, "There are rules allowed"

"Say, what did you put in your pocket a few minutes ago…?" I asked as I took several pictures.

"Never mind, do as you will, citizen" The officer said as he looked away.

After taking the pictures, I then handed the clipboard to the officer. He walked away and continued to ask witnesses. I took a closer look at the photo and saw a circle in it with a pattern of a hexagon inscribed in it. There was a line pointing to it that labelled it "Label, stone, symbol, gem, or something else"

"Why would there be a gem of all things in something like that?" Brea asked, "And why would there be a gigantic monster? I mean, that's pretty ridiculous"

"I might know…" I said as I dialed a number to my phone.

I placed the phone to my ear. – Ring, ring, "Hello?" - The voice through the phone was Bloodstone's.

"Bloodstone? Where's Dad?" I asked.

"Why are you in a cellular device?" She asked.

I waited a few seconds for Bloodstone to catch her mistake. I knew she was still adapting to society after being in recovery for a few thousand years, but I already told her about how phones work. 3 minutes later…

"Oh, you called the device, and you're not in the device" Bloodstone said.

"Correct. Anyway, you said something about 'The Corrupted' while ago?" I asked.

"Yeah, they are gems who are corrupted that mostly take the forms of monsters" She said, "Why?"

"There might be one by the arcade, and I don't think humans can really stand up to it"

"Mike, I...can't go right now" She said.

I stopped walking immediately. "What do you mean that you can't go?" I said.

"I have things on mind, things I'd prefer to not talk about"

"Bloodstone, I know you can stop this, and if you don't, more innocents would get hurt. Is that what you want?"

She didn't answer. I called her name several times, but then she hung up. She was on the roof of my house, looking at the ground in front of her, but I didn't know at the time. She recognized the ground she was on because those were the same grounds that she saw Amber die. Tears began to flow down her eyes.

_More innocents will get hurt. Is that what you want? _She couldn't stop hearing those words, even though she tried. The more and more those words repeated, she then remembered a conversation she had with Amber.

_Bloodstone and Amber walking the deep forests 5000 years ago._

Bloodstone still had the same armor, but she had black hair instead of white. Amber had orange long clothes and golden eyes. She was dressed as a healing priestess from any video game.

"Hey Amber, you could have had stronger weapons, but you chose an Amber staff. Why?" She asked.

"Because I don't plan on hurting" She answered.

"You don't plan on hurting?" Bloodstone punched the tree next to her, splitting it in half. "We're exiles, and what's more, we're gonna be forced to fight"

"If I chose a strong weapon, I could hurt the aliens that didn't hurt us" She examined the end of the staff, and she tapped the end of it with the gem on her upper left chest. A circular amber was placed on the end of it. "I want to help, not hurt"

"What if they pissed me off and I smashed their skulls in?" Bloodstone said as she punched another tree, shattering it into multiple pieces of bark, "And then more people came in and got in my way"

Before she could punch the last on, Amber took her staff and held it between Bloodstone's arm and shoulder to keep it from straightening into a punch. She extended the staff through the oak tree in front of her and made Bloodstone stuck.

"Violence isn't always the answer, love, you know?" Amber said as she let go of the staff and leaned on the tree, "I'm a healer"

"It makes me feel more dominant, Amber" Bloodstone said as she still couldn't move her arm, "I never really cared if it was with innocents or not; I'm on no one's side"

"But then people who are innocent, probably just minding their own business, would get hurt. Is that what you want?"

Bloodstone leaped down from the roof. She headed for the city with speed, faster than any human could. By the arcade, however, I snuck inside along with Brea. She didn't seem so happy about it, but she decided to.

"I didn't decide to do anything!" She shouted, "I like to live"

"If no one's going to stop the monster, you might as well say goodbye to the game and the arcades, can't you" I said as I stared at her, "And with the way we met when you walked into the store, I know you can't live without it"

"Well… you're right" She said with a sigh.

_I'm horribly wrong about this choice if anything. _I thought to myself.

We looked around. We saw multiple spider webs made with red thread. They were sparkling a bright red color. Brea got closer to me and embraced my arm with fear as I squinted my eyes at the webs. I took a picture of it and moved on.

There were torn up arcade games with more webs inside each machine. Brea knelt down to each and embraced each as if they were her own children. "Why wasn't it me!?" She shouted.

The shout echoed around the room, never like before. I placed my hands inside my black jacket pockets and pulled out two pistols and swiftly looked around. Brea continued to bawl around the arcade machinery, but then we both hear quick footsteps, almost sounding like a ticking noise. We looked off into the darkness of the arcade, where the noise was coming from. The sound was growing louder and louder by the second, making Brea hide behind my back. Without any fear, I pointed my guns at the darkness.

A gigantic red spider swiftly crawled out of the darkness and nearly leaped on to me. It hissed and spat in my face multiple times, and I struggled trying to get it off of me, and Brea stood back. After nearly running out of energy, I finally was able to wrap my fingers around the triggers of my pistol. I aimed it at the spider, but then the spider spat out red webs from its mouth and trapped my arms to the ground. The force of the webs slamming my arms into the ground caused one of my guns to slide near Brea.

"Brea! The gun!" I shouted as I tried to push the spider away with my legs, "Quickly!"

Brea struggled to grab the gun, probably because of her gentle side, and I pushed the spider off of my body. However, the spider jumped onto the ceiling and looked down on me. I didn't hesitate to use my powers see what it was going to do. It was about to jump straight down and bite my stomach. When I saw it beginning to fall from the ceiling, I raised my legs and caught it before it land on me. I pushed it off of me and kept kicking it while my hands were restrained.

_Damn it, I can't grab the gun, I'm scared! _Brea thought to herself. _Someone help!_

Someone jumped through the ceiling and landed next to me. I couldn't see who it was because the dust of the broken ceiling began to cloud the room. I began to concentrate the rest of the energy I had into freeing my arms from the red webs. I tried and tried, but my arms couldn't break the web. I heard fighting going on with the spider and someone else, but I couldn't tell who it was.

I then saw a glowing red orb rolling towards me. It was a ruby, specifically a star ruby because of the particular pattern. I then saw a grayish light glow brighter and brighter as some woman neared me. As the dust finally cleared the room, I saw a person with gray skin and white eyes dressed in a black kimono with a purple belt to it and carried a black katana. The closer I looked at the katana, I noticed that it had similar features to a diamond… Wait…

"Where's Beryl?" She asked as she held the sword to my throat, "I know that you met with Bloodstone, and I know you have something to do with Beryl!"

_**Well, this is obviously a bad way to introduce myself to another… what are they called, Rock Sentient Beings? Gems? Well, how am I going to live through this one?**_


	3. The Black Diamond

I have is a sword tip near my throat and a friend being a coward, not that I can blame her, honestly. I really pictured my final moments being in an epic final battle against some powerful threat, but I knew that would be slightly ridiculous, wouldn't it? Brea was scooting backwards in fear because she knew that the person in front of her was clearly powerful. However, I don't know fear.

_And for once, this __is__ the important thing that happened at the time._

"Why and how would I know someone named Beryl?" I asked while glaring, "If you're also mistaking me for Florence, I-" The samurai woman stepped on and placed lots of pressure on my bound arm. I began to hold in screams of pain. I looked over and saw Brea watch with fear-struck eyes. By then, I couldn't feel my arms.

"So you say, but I clearly remember you from thousands of years ago" She said while she was still stepping on my arm, "I clearly remember you leaving me and Beryl to live after killing Amber and making Bloodstone go into her gem for nearly forever" She pulled up my sleeve, and pointed at my forearm. "And I know you have two gems on your... Forearms?"

She got off of my arm and cut the red webs binding me to the ground with her sword. I grabbed onto the arms she stepped on and hoped that it would ease the pain. And, of course, it didn't. I looked over and realized Brea was gone, leaving no trace. She lifted me up while grabbing my arm. Her eyes began to glow, and so did mine. I learned that her name was Black Diamond.

* * *

-Black Diamond's memory, Nagasaki Japan in August 6, 1939-

(All narrated in her cold voice and point of view)

For endless months in the gem war, I have been searching for a worthy army to fight alongside of. There were short rebellions, one that mainly did a perfect job, but I'm not there to rebel or stop the rebellion. I was here to find a worthy rival ever since Yellow Diamond decided to not fight for herself anymore. She was weak.

I at least encountered two people that were worthy of being rivals, but one of them just vanished due to Florence. Their names were Bloodstone and Beryl. They were good friends of mine ever since, but I could only contact them ever since with my messenger raven. Bloodstone stopped writing ever since Amber, her romantic partner, died. I've lost hope of contacting Beryl because my raven informed me of Florence attacking her. Ever since then, I have tried to find my atonement by learning the ways of the samurai.

That training lasted 62 years, when sensei died of old age in the middle of WWII. It's unfortunate for humans, but I guess that's how life is for them. I became even better than I thought I could be with my true mastery of swordsmanship. I didn't follow in my master's footsteps and find my own student because no one could ever match my expectations. So instead of staying with the samurai way, I joined the army.

Japan was fighting off Russia, annexing Korea, and everything else, but then there was a special bomb. I told the strategist not to do something like bomb an area not in the war, but _no, _he just had to bomb Pearl Harbor, didn't he? Well, they were lucky enough that I saw the bomb. I had to stop it somehow...

As a reaction to seeing it drop to the ground, I quickly ran for the bomb. My raven flew by my side, but I didn't want him to get hurt. "Raven, go, run as far away as you can!"

The raven didn't stop.

"I said go!" I shouted as I pushed it away, "Get out of here!"

The raven immediately turned around and flew away, leaving me alone to stop the bomb. I knew it was for the best, so I kept running. The bomb was getting closer to the ground, and I was nearing it. I jumped at the right angle to catch the gigantic bomb. Before I landed, I threw it higher into the air, high enough so that the bomb wouldn't do as much damage to Japan. While I still had the chance, I grabbed one of my Bo Shurikens and threw it hard towards the bomb, not knowing how powerful it would be.

The bomb made a large explosion after being hit by the small throwing star. The force of the bomb blew away everything in its reach, everything. Buildings, lights, and the people were blown away, completely destroyed. The force if the bomb made a crater into the ground and pushed my whole body into it. I could feel my gem getting scratched, or even worse, cracked by the blast of the bomb. My body retreated into the Black Diamond, my gem embedded in my right hand. I couldn't recall what else happened…

How could a bomb be so powerful?

-Everything became static like on a TV-

* * *

Black Diamond and I stopped holding hands, and our eyes stopped glowing. I grabbed the star ruby and placed it into my pocket next to the Beryl emerald. I purposely hid the emerald so that she wouldn't try to kill me. I was curious about Black Diamond. "Wait, you knew Bloodstone?" I asked, "She's with me ever since I fixed her cracked gem"

"What do you mean you fixed her gem?" She said as she raised me by the collar. It's not the first time this has happened with someone foreign to this planet. "It's impossible for humans to do something like that!" "Are you sure?" I asked.

My eyes glowed then for a split second. Black Diamond's eyes glowed for a split second too. She placed her palm on her forehead in a way that made it look as if she was in pain. I backed away and tried to think about what just happened. The only thing I could recall at the moment when Bloodstone and I were hanging out. Black Diamond stared at me strangely.

"Who are you?" Black Diamond asked as she put her hand down.

"Michael," I said as the pain in my arms had subsided, "Michael Kuudama"

I placed the guns in my pocket and took a step back. Black Diamond took a step forward and sheathed her katana in the scabbard. I backed away again, concerned about what she was doing. I read her mind.

_Those were his flash backs, weren't they? He does know Bloodstone..._

"Wait, you saw my flash backs? How?" I asked as I took a step back. For the first time ever since I found out I had powers, I became slightly nervous. "That never... Happened..."

"You have psychic powers. You can see into other people's memories, you can read minds, and predict actions" Black Diamond gripped the handle of the sheathed katana, "But this is new, isn't it? Showing other people your memories instead?"

"I don't remember being able to do something like that, yeah" I said. "How did you know about it?"

"...No reason" She said as she eased her grip from the handle. "Take me to this home of yours"

"But you threatened to kill me" I said as I turned around and left, "Why would I do that?"

Before I could exit the arcade, Black Diamond appeared in front of me and held her sword to my throat again. I gave her a blank stare as she gave me a glare. I reached into my pockets for the pistols, and she partially pulled the blade out of her scabbard.

"I can't trust you, not around Bloodstone, not around Beryl. I know her gem is in your pocket for who knows what" She said with a harsher tone, she placed the tip of her blade on my throat. "You're going to do everything I say, or it's your head"

"Like hell I will" I said. I began to predict her future actions. I saw her silhouette saying something and then piercing my throat.

"I warned you to…"

Before she could finish, I moved my head back. I immediately predicted her next action and moved my head right and pulled out one of my pistols, right before she could thrust the sword through me. The strikes were really fast, so I had to focus. I kept predicting what her next action would be so that I wouldn't get killed, sliding left, right and ducking. When I got to her side, she tried to elbow me, and I caught the strike with my empty hand and aimed the pistol at her left arm and shot it. She pushed me away with the elbow I caught and held the wound in her left arm. I swiftly pulled out my second pistol, and she swiftly swung her sword at the side of my head before I could predict her move. Right when I thought it was over for me, I saw her pushed away by someone else.

"Get away, baka!" The other woman shouted, obviously Brea. It was obviously a bad idea for her, even if it was a surprise attack.

"Brea, get back!" I as I stood in front of her.

Black Diamond swung her sword to the side of my head. I held my gun to the side of my head because I knew that was where she was aiming, and if I avoided it, the slash would kill Brea. The gun didn't get cut through. Black diamond was shocked.

"The blade I carry is able to cut through anything, even your weapon!" She shouted, "How is that weapon not broken!"

"You only scratched it" I said as I stared her down, "I remade two hand guns that were already even better than the Type 94 Nambu pistols used by Japan in WWII, the war you partially took part of before your gem cracked. I enhanced these guns durability by replacing the average steel with tungsten and iridium, metals that are pretty damn hard to break. And besides, diamonds aren't the best for weapons, are they?"

I pushed the katana away from my body while knocking Black Diamond off balance, and I pushed Brea away so that she would be in a safe distance. Before Black Diamond could get up, I pointed both of my pistols at Black Diamond, practically pinning her down. But right at the most inconvenient of moments, a woman with a gigantic hammer and red armor appeared at the other side of the arcade.

"B.D? Mike?" She said aloud.

"Bloodstone?" Black Diamond and I shouted aloud.

She was confused, seeing me point two guns to her friend who couldn't move due to those circumstances. I continued to stare down on Black Diamond with both guns pointed at her. She looked at both of us, confused as if one of us was the enemy. I was about to explain, but Black Diamond spoke first.

"He attacked first!" She shouted.

"What? No I didn't" I said as I stared at Bloodstone, "She thought I was Fluorite or Florence or whatever her name was"

"You'd believe a human over me?"

"I never had an intention of hurting you in the first place"

"Don't lie you worthless—"

Bloodstone slammed her hammer into the ground, causing the ground to shake and a complete silence. Brea began to hide behind another arcade game. She stared at the both of us. She walked in between us and stared us both down. She lifted us both by our shirts. She glared at both of us with the same exact look, making Black Diamond feel uneasy. I sighed and waited for either one of them to say something, but Brea said something from behind a broken video game.

"Some spider monster attacked, it webbed Mike to the ground, and that samurai killed it, but then she tried to kill Mike after he refused to do everything she says" She said as if she was a shy person. She began to whisper. "Please don't hurt me!"

Bloodstone dropped me, and she grabbed Black Diamond with two hands. Veins pulsed on the side of Bloodstone's head, and Black Diamond began to shiver. I read her mind.

_Crap, she's my rival, but only because she's way stronger than me! _Black Diamond thought. _I can't even surpass her power yet!_

"You're not going to kill her, are you?" I asked.

"No, I'm not, but then again, I don't know what to do with this person" Bloodstone said as she tightened her grip, "What would you do?"

"I'd...fix her gem first and then let her do what she wants from there"

"Fix my gem? I can't trust you at all!" Black Diamond shouted. She tried to shake free, but then Bloodstone held her against the stone wall of the arcade.

"I can trust him, and if you can't trust him, then you can't trust me!" Bloodstone said in a harsher yet demonic tone as she pushed harder into the wall, placing pressure on her bullet wound, "He saved me from living the rest inside a corrupt gem, and he taught me how to live in nowadays society. Is that 'killing' to you?"

Black Diamond stayed silent, shocked at Bloodstone. That only made Bloodstone even angrier.

"You. Never. Control. Yourself!" Bloodstone shouted as she slammed Black Diamond into the wall, "Is it?"

"No, it isn't" Black Diamond muttered, "It's just that… This human is—"

Before she could finish, Bloodstone punched Black Diamond so hard that body retreated into her gem, causing Brea to shriek for a split second. Bloodstone picked up the gem and tossed it to me. I still had to calm Brea down.

"Brea, calm down" I said to her, "That person is still okay"

"B-but she just vanished!" Brea said as she began to breathe harder and harder. "How did that... I... kore wa nan desu ka…?"

Brea fell unconscious. I carried Brea in front of me to the exit of the arcade. Bloodstone followed with her hammer held behind her back. We both took a big sigh as we neared the exit.

"Talk about friends who just can't control themselves..." Bloodstone said as she looked at the gem in my pocket.

"Tell me about it" I said as I looked at Brea.

"Wait, is that Star Ruby?" She said as she began to stare at it. She reached for it through my pocket.

"Yeah, I know she's not a friend of yours, though" I said as turned my body away so she couldn't reach it, "Don't break it"

"I wasn't going to-"

_"Finally, now I can put an end to Star Ruby!" _I said as I mocked her voice, _"Her gem has caused enough trouble"_

"Wha— hey!" She shouted as she glared at me.

"You thought of it, not me" I said as we kept walking.

_**A day later…**_

"Mike, what were you thinking, skipping work and going to the arcade with your girlfriend?" My Dad said as he folded his arms and stared at me with angry eyes. "You even got involved with the terrorist attack there! Do you know how worried I was?"

"Very worried. And Brea isn't my girlfriend" I said as I looked at a ring I had made a few days after having to explain a fake story about the arcade incident. The ring I held in my hand was made out of amber and had a small spherical bloodstone on it.

"You know what?" Dad took the ring out of my hand and placed it on the counter. He also took the silver hammer from me and placed it in his pocket. "You're not setting foot near the forge until you make up for the money they charged me!"

"That's impossible unless I actually work, you know, so I'll need the hammer" I said as I looked towards the direction of the shop. I pulled out my sketching notebook.

"Fine then, take the hammer" Dad grunted as he handed me the hammer, "Then you're never working at the counter again!"

"I never liked talking to people anyway" I said as I grabbed the ring.

"Then you're never going to talk to those strange magic people again!" He said, "Surely you care about that"

"You mean Black Diamond and Bloodstone? You know they won't allow that to happen" I said as I began to draw sketches for a new design of jewelry, "Anything else?"

"You know what? Forget it!" The Dad said as he stomped out of the room. "I'm tired of having to take the blame of your incidents when you use your powers or something!"

I went upstairs to my room and laid down on my bed. I placed the ring on the desk near my bed and pulled out my phone. Brea sent me a more than a few texts ever since that incident. Most of conversations we had were related to playing more arcade games instead of caving indoors the entire weekend, but this one was different.

**Brea:**So to sum up everything u said in the past few weeks, there are these people/monsters called "Gems" that are almost like humans but are a lot stronger with their own weapons/armor? And also, the ones with u were... Gem Knights?

**Mike: **That's all I know, tbh. And there's a third one I fixed for them. That emerald u saw me speak to.

**Brea: **Beril?

**Mike:** Yeah, Beryl. She's an archer with a Bow and Arrow kind of fighting style.

**Brea:** She's an archer? Nfw! This is just like one of the usual trios u would see in videogames!

**Mike:** Yeah, ironic for a gamer like me.

**Brea:** K, gtg, I heard that the arcade is finally repaired and compensated for the damages by some generous wealthy person. Why don't you come with?

**Mike:** Nah, I still have to get acquainted with Beryl.

**Brea:** Are u dating her or something? :(

**Mike:** _Acquainted_. I barely know her… why the anger face?

**Brea:** No reason. Bye!

**Mike:** See you.

I closed my phone, looked up at the ceiling of my bed and began to wonder.

_**This is gonna get weirder by the day. I wonder what Black Diamond was going to say yesterday before Bloodstone punched her? "This human is—" It's probably too soon to figure out, but it doesn't hurt to know. I wonder what will happen next...**_


	4. The Emerald Hunter

What's going on with my life? Is it just going to be metal working and fighting monsters now? Whatever, I was in the garage, again, making items that people would want, very good looking necklaces and rings. I've already made 20 of each within the first hour, each made out of different materials, and very little of them looked cheap. These were always easy to make, but I decided to make something else again, something that could suit the newest gem to join us, Beryl. Have I not described her yet?

Beryl has an average-sized body with a lighter green skin. Her hair is a light green color, and she has green pupils for eyes. She wears a green spaulder on her right shoulder with a leaf spike on the end. She has an emerald green cloak (Without a hood) starting from a little below her shoulders and then going down her back and lower than her legs like a cape. She then wears brown leather clothing under her cloak, probably light armor. Her gem location is unknown to me.

I took a step outside and looked up at the trees. From here, I could see her petting a squirrel and reading a 21st century book called the Unfamiliar Familiar, book 1 of the Spirit Morph Saga. I walked over to the tree and leaned on it instead of climbing it. I waved to get her attention.

"Enjoying the book?" I asked.

"Yes, thank you for asking" She said politely, "Reading is like a vision that my intellect gathers, teaching me things of fiction that can be seen as a moral lesson to our real life"

"That's true" I said as I tossed my silver hammer several times and caught it, "You like to analyze things, don't you?" I implied, "You must be the smartest in the group"

"Yeah, it is why I'm good at hunting" She said as the squirrel climbed up on her spaulder. "Speaking of which, is there any game nearby?"

"Depends, rabbits and occasional deer, yes, but anything larger is nowhere around here" I looked at her as I spoke. "Can you jump down for a sec?"

Beryl stood up from the branch. She held her left hand near her spaulder, and the squirrel ran onto it. She lowered her hand onto the branch, and the squirrel ran onto the branch. Beryl leaped off of the branch, did a front flip, and landed perfectly on her two feet. She then looked back at me with a smile.

"What did you need?"

"Well..." I was trying to think of the right words so that I wouldn't lifted by the collar of my shirt. I tried to read her mind to see if she was planning to, but I couldn't control my powers again. "Can I check the sizes of your head?"

"I don't have a big head"

When she said that, I backed up and raised my hands near my shoulders, but she didn't do anything. I lowered my hands and sighed in relief. "I know you don't have a big head, but I'm just wondering, you know?"

Beryl stared at me with a brow raised. I then realized how awkward my question was. I shook my head and walked away. "Forget I asked" I said.

Before I took another step, Beryl stopped me by placing her hand on my shoulder. I immediately turned around and placed my hands on the handles of my guns, alarmed about what was going to happen. However, the look on Beryl's facial expression suggested other than violence. She looked like she wanted an answer, but in a nicer way than Bloodstone and Black Diamond.

"Are you trying to make something for me?"

I looked away, letting go of the handles. "Nothing wrong with it, right?"

"Nothing is wrong with knowing a purpose, it keeps me aware" She said as she smiled. "So... you needed to know my head size?"

"Right…"I pulled out a tape measure and circled her forehead. It measured 55cm. Before I could remove the tape measure from her forehead, both of our eyes began to glow.

* * *

Beryl's memory, narrated in first person with her positive voice.

My name is Beryl Emerald, professional rogue hunter from homeworld. When I came to Earth about 6000 years ago, I became a pro hunter, knowing all kinds of animal tracks. That's one of the reasons why I prefer the bow as a weapon of choice. I used my hunting skills to track down gems too for a good reward, whether they die or not, as a mercenary.

I walked around the forest alongside Florence, my only sister. It is highly unlikely be a gem and to have blood relatives at the same time we are alive, but we are sisters. We were out for revenge on some person, but as of right now, I can't remember who our target was. I had take a side path to regroup with another friend of ours, Star. When I came back on the route that my sister walked on, I saw someone I knew now, Bloodstone.

At the time, she was crying in front of gem shards, shards of someone she knew, obviously. The shards were probably damaged beyond repair, meaning they wouldn't even form a tiny bits of limbs. I decided to walk over to her and cheer her up—

* * *

I backed away, covering my eyes. My head began to throb even harder than it usually would, and I couldn't focus on anything anymore. When I can't focus, I can't control the power I was born with. My psychic abilities were completely uncontrollable at the moment, making me freak out over everything as if I were an insecure being.

I only get minor headaches after seeing into other people's memories, but this one began to hurt even more. I tried to calm down, but it only got worse. I could hear the voices of the thoughts of everyone nearby at once. I began to cover my ears, and I kneeled down to the ground while hunching my back. Whenever I covered my ears, the voices grew louder.

"Michael?" Beryl called out as she reached her hand out towards me.

"Stay back!" I shouted I smacked her hand away.

Still covering my ears, I ran away. I ran past a few trees and near a lake and clumsily fell onto a tree next to me. There were only two voices instead of twenty by now, but it was still pretty loud. I covered my eyes and tried to concentrate, but then I got more memories. However, I couldn't tell who the memories belonged to...

* * *

?'s thoughts and memories

Narrated in a familiar female's voice in first person, without any cut scenes.

I reached my goal in coming to Earth. All I planned on doing was to come here and ruin the life of the person who had ruined mine. She killed my best friend, Topaz, and she framed me and ruined my reputation on homeworld, making me a master assassin instead of the hero I was once called. Not only that, but I began to change from good to evil by corrupting the star squad and targeting the gems that remain on earth. I did that for hundreds of years until I caught on to the fact that I was insane in my own way, knowing I only did this out of rage. I still felt the rage, so I disappeared and tried to calm down by not using violence for a while.

I settled down in Colorado in the year 1800, soon to be a town called Lakeside. It's now 1989, and I've made a good human friend, then becoming a husband several years later. With the powers I have and the decisions I would make, I decided to never have children, but then I became pregnant. It's a classically ironic thing, I guess, not wanting children and then having children. I found out that I was going to have twins, something I never thought possible.

In the x-ray, I saw one had a gem, and the other one didn't. I knew that the one with the gem was going to have my weapon and invisibility. But… I wonder if the human will be the one to have no powers and live a normal human life, but my personality and weapons are only carried in my gems, so would the twins have one each or something? I don't know the science of human/gem babies. If they have my gem, they will be like me, people willing to do anything for revenge. Her life would be rough, and she'll be a part of something she doesn't want to be. I only want the best for my children—

* * *

-Everything slowly became static as she continued speaking, and her voice was immediately cut off-

I felt my conscious slipping and my head pounding. My back fell over from the tree and onto the ground. I tried to get up and stay awake, but my eyelids only grew heavier. Everything slowly became darker as someone ran towards me.

**Three hours later…**

"—ke up, Michael" I heard someone say as I slowly opened my eyes. "Wake up, Michael, wake up!"

I rapidly opened my eyes and sat up. It was night time, and there was a bonfire lit close to me, keeping me warm. I faced my body to the fire to get as much heat as I can because it was a cold night. I sat in the sand on the shore, searching through it for anything for no reason. I tried to remember the memory that wasn't Beryl's, but I couldn't remember anything. "What happened?" I asked aloud, "Am I... This isn't Lakeside"

"Yeah, we're somewhere else" Someone said from the other side of the large, blue-flamed bonfire. The voice was obviously Beryl's. I instantly remembered everything. "We borrowed a friend's warp pad to get to a place-"

"We teleported? Who owned the teleportation pad?" I quickly asked, "This kind of tech is advanced"

"Just a group of old friends of mine who decided to call themselves the Crystal Gems" Beryl looked at the circular platform hidden behind the bushes.

"Huh, more gems, what are the odds" I said as I held my hands closer to the fire, "I should be back at home so that I can talk to friends and continue working"

"Because we're hunting together today" Beryl said as she stood up.

She snapped her fingers once, and a powerful gust had blown away the bonfire. Before the bonfire blew out, it was pushed towards my direction. I backed away, but the fire already caught onto my left leg. I tried shaking my leg constantly to get the flames off of my pants, but it didn't work. I finally began to feel the burn and began to bounce around in pain.

"Beryl!" I shouted in pain.

She shook her head, took off her cloak, and covered my leg with the cloak. She smothered it, getting the flames off of my leg and placing pressure on my wound. When she removed her cloak from my leg, I saw that a part of my pants was burned away, and my leg was darker. I sighed in relief and sat back down. I examined the area around me.

"What islet is this?" I asked. "I can tell it is small, but the forest looks huge"

"We're hunting on an island called the Crescent Moon islet" She said as she summoned her weapon.

She reached behind her back and pulled out green bow with glassy material, an emerald bow. The string on it was nearly invisible. As I admired the bow, she began to walk. I caught myself and began to walk fast enough to catch up to her fast pace.

We walked along the shoreline to find a way to get in the forest. I looked around as I walked next to Beryl so that I could try and concentrate on my powers, but there wasn't any luck. Beryl, on the other hand was completely aware of the things in front of her. We took a dirt path into the forest.

"What are we hunting?" I asked as I finally pulled my two pistols out of my pockets. I cocked the guns and was ready to fire at anything. "This seems a bit ominous"

"Just something to prove that you're not weak like the rest of the humans" She said bluntly, "At the peak of the woods, there is someone who goes by Star Quartz, or at least they used to be. Now they are two corrupted gems, Star Moonstone and Star Black Sapphire. You will fight them this time"

I shook my head. After all of the situations I have been in the past few days, I knew I could handle this. "Do I really have to do this?"

"With all due respect, I won't be working with a weak person" She said as she gripped the bow harder and kept her eyes forward, "Your death won't be my fault, kid"

For a moment, my powers came back. I read her mind to see why her feelings had changed from benevolent and kind to an equivalent of Black Diamond.

_He knows how to use two smaller weapons in both hands, doesn't he? He might be able to take this monster on his own. Just like someone I knew..._

I wondered about those words, 'Someone I knew'._ Who did she know with that kind of skill?_

"A person you would/wouldn't want to know" She said as she made her weapon disappear.

"Stay out of my thoughts…" I thought as I looked away.

She pulled an arrow from her quiver and pointed it towards the sky. The arrow began to glow a bright green color, and then a trail lit up in front of us. The trail was green, and it was a straight path leading to the top of the island, something we couldn't see otherwise. We followed the trail until we couldn't go higher. The peak was a flat, large circled stage like an arena.

"The peak?" I asked, "This looks like an ancient gladiator ring without walls to keep us in"

"Just wait for it" She said as she backed up.

She backed up until she was off of the peak. Metal gates covered the exits to the peak, trapping only me. The ground began to shake harder than a dangerous earthquake. It than began to feel like someone was digging under the ground. I grabbed my two guns and prepared for a fight of some kind.

Two corrupted looking gems, one completely black and one completely white, rose from under the ground. One looked like a skeleton, and the other looked a bit like a zombie. He black one was equipped with a shield like a knight, and the white one was equipped with a pointed sword, just like a night. The black one's gem was on her shield, as if it was attached to his body, and the white one's gem was located on her forehead. They slowly sidestepped next to each other, and a light grew bright near them. The light was bright enough to temporarily blind me, but when I could see them again, they were one tall grey knight armor shining at the moon.

I backed away into the gate, but I couldn't escape. "Beryl, what the hell?" I asked, "Do you really want me to die?"

"This is a test," She said on the other side, "But I thought they couldn't fuse together"

The knight ran towards me. I predicted its attack, and learned it was going to attack me with the shield first. If I dodged to the left, she would attack with the sword, and if I went right, I would still get hit by the shield. Without any other ideas, I pointed both of my guns at the knight and shot it multiple times. All of the bullets bounced off.

"Wait a sec..." I said as I thought about the option of going right.

I then predicted her actions again. If I jumped high enough and placed both of my feet on her shield the right way, she would launch me on to the edge of the tall gate behind me. If I could pull that off, I could actually have a chance to stall for even more time to think of how to fight back. The knight finally got in range to where I could act, so I jumped. I landed on top of the knight's shield as he unintentionally launched me high enough to reach the top of the gate.

While in the air, I placed my two guns in my pocket and prepared to grab the gate. I flew over the gate and nearly missed it, but I still landed on the opposite side of the gate I intended to grab. I began to think.

_I could use my improved reflexes after predicting her actions so that I could try and remove her helmet, and then I could easily head shot her. No, that's too risky. I could, however, aim directly at the slit of her helmet to get the kill, no, that won't work either; I'll run out of ammo. Maybe..._

"Shield!" Beryl shouted.

"I don't have a shield" I said to Beryl as I continued to think.

I looked back at the knight, and I saw that its shield was quickly spinning towards me. I tried to duck in time, but I lost my chance. The shield cut through my left eye and knocked me off of the fence. I felt my conscious slipping, and my eye was covered with blood. Beryl caught me on that other side and placed me down.

Beryl grabbed bandage wraps from my pocket and wrapped it over my eye and behind my head. She carried me over my shoulder as my vision was getting darker. I looked at the gate, seeing the knight, who was more of a monster. Before I blacked out, I saw the knight's shield fly back to the knight's arm, the knight jumped over the fence, and Beryl's cape/cloak covered my sight.

I woke up deep in the forest again on oak tree. I had a large headache that kept me from moving. I could feel the bandages tightly wrapped around my left eye without hurting, and I could see some of the bloodstains on my shirt. I reached into my pocket for my guns, but they were missing. I looked around the dirt and ravaged through to find the guns, but I couldn't find either one of them.

"Looking for these?" Someone asked me. That voice alone stopped my headache.

I recognized the voice and turned around. I couldn't remember where I heard the voice to whom it belonged to, but I know that I'd heard it somewhere before. I saw what almost looked like a holographic reflection, but it wasn't me. It was a woman who was holding my guns with a smile. She was familiar to me in a way.

"Don't die yet" She said with a passionate voice, "I know you can make it through this alive. I believe in you"

She began to fade away, so she dropped my guns on to my lap. In her final moments, she reached for my hands. I was highly confused about what was going on, but I felt like I could trust her. I grabbed her hands until she faded away. When I looked at her arms, I was suddenly startled. They both had grey gems that I instantly recognized. "Fluorite!"

She faded away like small piles of dust. I was confused, though. Why would she want to support me if I helped two people she targeted? Why would she even speak to me in the first place? I might/might not have been hallucinating, but it all seemed so real.

"Michael? Are you still there?" Beryl asked, "We have to move!"

I grabbed my guns and began to run. We both ran side by side, but I had no idea why. "Why are we running?"

"I never should have brought you here! Star Quartz is too much, corrupted or not!" She shouted, "I never thought they could fuse together while corrupted, this is all wrong! Any fusion, any kind between two gems becomes so strong that regular non fusion gems cannot stand up to it! And what's worse, the fusion left the gate! We have to leave, now!"

Right then, I could hear the fear coming from her. Her eyes were fear stricken, and she ran like there was no tomorrow. She never shouted or said anything that would suggest fear before, which made me wonder.

**A fusion between two gems becomes overpowered? Can't we call for help from anyone if we can't fight this alone? I didn't come here against my will only to die... labelled weak... **"No" I said as I stopped running.

Beryl instantly turned around and yanked on my shoulder. "We're leaving!"

I turned my shoulder away and glared at her. "I'm not a coward" I said to her.

She looked at me in shock, shook her head instantly and placed her hands on my shoulders. "There's no shame in-"

"There's shame in running away" I said as I reloaded my guns. "Look, I just got blinded in one of my eyes, and I don't know if I'll ever be able to see in this eye again. You said it yourself, you don't want to work with a weak partner"

"And I don't want to work with a dead partner either, let's go!" Beryl said as she continued to run.

I turned around and walked back to the top without replying. Beryl unwillingly followed to have my back. I made it to the peak and waited for the knight to arrive. I didn't care if the knight was too strong, I didn't care that I was blinded. I'm not going to give up for giving up. Bring it on, Star Quartz.

**Bring it on!**

_To be continued_


	5. Eye made a mistake

_Back at the shop..._

Brea and Dean (Someone that no one remembers) were talking by the counter. Not many people showed up at the jewelry shop today or the past few days. Dean got bored but still remained because he would get fired if he hadn't.

"You work with Mike, right? Have you seen him at all these past few months?" Brea asked, "I haven't seen him or heard from him for a while"

"Heck if I knew!" Dean said.

"He still works here, doesn't he?" Brea asked as she looked at her phone, "I want to hang with him again"

"He does!" Dean answered with energy, "I just don't know where he is, to be honest. He could be caving himself in his basement, playing video games and watching anime like he used to!"

"Not again, I thought the ge- his new friends stopped him from caving" Brea said as she bit her own lip, "He's probably hanging out with them"

"So he gets to skip work but I can't?" Dean said as he slammed the counter with one hand, "Fine, his pay's mine anyway!"

"With the lack of selling, your pay's being cut, right?" Brea said as she tilted her head left.

"Yeah!" Dean paused, thought about it, and finally sighed about it. "Yeah..."

They both sighed at the same time and leaned back. They looked around and saw all of the unsold jewelry, all not as good as Mike's.

"How good is Mike at selling anyway?" Brea asked as she sat on the counter.

"He's...One of a kind actually," Dean said as he placed his elbows on the counter and waited for a customer to by the counter, "It's like he can read their minds when they come up to the counter"

"He's a- like a psychic" Brea answered as she bit her lip again. "He can- he's good at metaphorically reading minds"

"Stop stuttering!" He shouted.

Brea continued to bite her lip to avoid saying anything...strange. They both simultaneously sighed again as they watched the shop. Brea grew bored, and Dean grew tired. Brea decided to leave.

"Whatever happened, I'm getting to the bottom of it" She said as she began to leave. "Later"

"Alright, see you 'round!" Dean said as he placed his forehead onto the counter of the shop in a defeated, exhausted manner.

Brea walked across the shop to the exit. She accidentally bumped into someone in a leather jacket. She fell back, and the same person helped her up.

"Sorry about that" The mysterious woman said, "You okay?"

"Yeah, don't worry about it" Brea answered, "Anyway, I need to go"

"Wait, before you go, do you know who Michael Kuudama is?" She asked. "I really need to speak to him"

"Sorry, he's not working at the jewelry shop at the moment" Brea said as she rolled her eyes. "He'll be back soon"

"Jewelry shop?" The mysterious woman asked.

"Yeah, right here. Gems get forged into wearable material, you know?" Brea said, "See you soon"

The mysterious woman rushed past Brea. She looked around at all of the accessories hung on the wall with a look of fear and anger. She looked down at the ground and clenched her fists. Dean noticed.

"Hey lady, step right up if you wanna buy!" He said as he was energetic, "We have tons of-"

Before he finished, he saw the lady take off the leather jacket. At first, he grabbed a napkin to wipe his nosebleed because she only had a bra on, but then she pulled out a gigantic hammer that seemed to be hard to hide from her shoulder...

* * *

So, I guess my life as a welder, or a blacksmith as I call it, is gonna change from now without an eye. I just hope the shop's gonna be okay. I pointed both of my pistols at the hill, waiting for the knight, whatever kind of gem he/she was. I was ready for revenge, even though one of my eyes were blinded, and the bullets would bounce off of that strong armor... and I barely knowing how to really fight... Dammit, what am I thinking? I'm screwed if I don't get out of here like Beryl said.

"Finally reconsidered, cap'n one-eye?" She said as she removed the bandage wraps from my eyes.

"Save the insults and 'I told you so's until after we leave" I said as we both walked to get off the hill. I placed my hand over my wounded eye. It didn't hurt anymore, but I couldn't see through that eye anymore.

Before we could reach the end of the circular hilltop, the gates had risen out of the ground again, trapping us both this time. I could hear myself swearing under my breath as the ground shook again, and I could see Beryl in shock like she was going to die, not that I could blame her. I pulled out my guns and looked straight to the center of the hilltop and waited for that knight to pop out. However, the same separate zombie and skeleton popped out of the ground. Beryl took her bow from behind her cape and placed two arrows on the quiver of her bow.

"Don't just stand there, fight before they get together again!" She shouted to me as she released both of the arrows.

One arrow flew towards the skeleton, and the other flew towards the zombie. The black zombie arched its back and chopped through one of the arrows, and the white skeleton blocked the arrow with the shield. Beryl snapped with her fingers once, and a powerful gust pushed both of the corrupted gems back. The zombie stood its ground, and the skeleton fell on its back. I took the chance and aimed at the skeleton while it was off guard.

I pulled the trigger several times towards the skeleton, but the skeleton blocked each shot with the shield. I used the bullets as a diversion to find where the skeleton's gem was, assuming that it could be a weak spot. The skeleton's white gem was located in its spine, so I'd have to get around it somehow. It quickly got up, spun around, and threw the shield at me like a Frisbee. I ducked under the shield and began to shoot the skeleton. The skeleton backed away as each bullet bounced off of the bones. It clearly did damage. I kept my head down as the shield went back to the skeleton's arm. I should have been able to predict that could happen.

"Beryl, I can't read its mind, or their minds, how am I supposed to sort of survive?" I shouted as I continued to the enemy.

"Fighting is not about reading minds, it's about analyzing the fight before you get hit or die" She said as she dodged several swings. She shot the zombie's stomach, making it bend forward, and then she made a large back flip jump backwards and kicked the zombie's face at the same time. "You watch closely to the enemy's attack pattern, and you adapt or find openings"

Beryl was shooting three arrows at once multiple times at the zombie quickly. The zombie leaned to different sides to dodge and cut through each arrow as it walked towards Beryl. It turned its body right and raised its sword to the sky, making it shine to the moon, as it swung the sword down. Beryl blocked it with her emerald bow and pushed the zombie back. She jumped over the zombie and shot it with an arrow, and the zombie was pushed forward. The zombie turned around to face Beryl, and Beryl whacked the zombies jaw with the bow.

The zombie took a sloppy but large jump backwards after recuperating itself, and it landed right behind the skeleton. The zombie and the skeleton pressed their backs together, and the light began to shine again. I immediately took action and reloaded my pistols, and then I began to shoot rapidly to prevent them from coming together. The shots couldn't do much because of the skeleton's shield blocking the both of them. I was going to circle around it so that I can do some damage, but then came that blinding light. When I could open my one eye again after being blinded from the light, I saw the same tall dark knight with the black-as-night sword and spiked white shield.

I backed up, and I saw Beryl step forward with her bow. They both moved to the right and faced each other like a duel. I made sure to back up so that I wouldn't be taking any collateral damage. Beryl jumped behind the knight and kept her arrow pointing at him. The knight swiftly turned around and kept her shield pointing at Beryl while keeping it's blade pointed at me.

The knight began to run towards Beryl. The Beryl shot an arrow at the knight, and the knight blocked it with her shield. The shield was slightly cracked by the impact. The knight threw the shield at Beryl, and Beryl ducked under it. While she duck under it, the knight kneed her forehead hard, causing Beryl to stand up and drop her tried to stay balanced after that attack, but then the shield struck Beryl's back as it flew back to the knight. Beryl fell forward, and her head landed on the knight's hand.

The knight lifted her head up like a doll and stared into her eyes. Beryl tried to stay conscious, but she was slowly slipping away. I could tell because her thoughts weren't as responsive. I slowly crept behind the knight to sneak attack her. When I had a clear shot at an opening between the back of her neck and the back of her helmet, I was about to pull the trigger, but then...

"W-We-W-Weak" The knight said.

Beryl and I looked at the knight with shock. It was like she was wide awake afterwards. I immediately read her mind to figure out why. _She can talk? It can't be! AND she's a fusion between two corrupted gems. Corrupted!_ _What the hell is going on!?_ Beryl began to think a lot more, but then she began to glitch, for lack of a better word.

Berly's image was being distorted like a faulty hologram would. It continued to happen again and again as she couldn't move. I lowered my guns and watched to see what was going on. The knight dropped Beryl on her back. When Beryl looked up at the knight, the knight stomped on her once with an earth-shaking stomp. Beryl disappeared, leaving her emerald behind like every other gem related thing I have seen thus far. I took slow and quiet steps forward. I kept the pistols pointed at the knight, and I waited for it to turn around.

_The shield cracked. I'm no expert, but I do know that once anything cracks, it only gets weaker and more breakable like a phone. Maybe I can put it at a disadvantage by shooting the crack again and again..._

-SNAP-

The night swiftly turned around with its shield raised and sword pointed at me while looking at me after I had stepped on a twig. I paused and looked down at the twig that ruined my chances of victory. I looked back at the knight with a fake smile and then looked away.

_Or not…_

I quickly ran around it and was about to shoot more bullets at it, but before I could raise my guns at it again, the knight pressed the end of its sword at my neck without effort and began to walk forward. I had no choice but to take slow steps back to avoid getting my neck pierced. All I could feel was the blade of the sword at my neck, and it was sharp and unpleasant. As I took steps backward, I slipped over the Beryl's emerald and fell on my backside. My neck was slightly cut by the knights blade, so I covered my neck. The knight raised its sword and swung it down to do the finishing strike, my game over. However, before the sword landed on me, the light from Beryl's emerald began to glow brightly.

-CLASH-

After hearing the strike and not feeling the pain, I looked at my chest first to see if I was hurt in any way, and I saw that my clothes weren't torn from the sword at all. I looked up and saw Beryl standing in front of me like she blocked a strike from above. She blocked the strike by holding her bow in her teeth as a shield, saving me. The knight tilted its head back after Beryl blocked the shield like that, and Beryl looked back at the knight with the most determined and protective glare I have ever seen. It looked like her arm disappeared and her cloak dirtied and torn, and one of her eyes glowed the same way it would when Black Diamond's gem wasn't repaired.

"Beryl, your arm..." I said as I stared at the shoulder without an arm.

"Mike..." Beryl said through her teeth while taking deep breaths, "Just... finish this!"

Beryl headbutted the knight's helmet; the collision made a sound so loud that it echoed through the forest. The knight was knocked off balance as its helmet shattered. The knight bounced back in pain, knelt down, and covered its face. Beryl fell on her knees and then fell onto her back. She vanished into her gem that I had finally noticed a piece of it had shattered off. As I looked at her gem, not knowing if she was still alive or anything, the knight slowly got up, and I saw the horrible looking face behind the helmet.

The face of the knight looked decayed for lack of a better word, probably because of how it was a fusion of a skeleton and zombie. The knight had 4 eyes, the skin was unhealthily darker for a pale color, and it looked like I could see the bones of her jaws because there wasn't any skin there at all.

"Ill" I said as I pulled out my guns again.

"D-Di-iE-DIE" The knight responded as it pulled out its sword and charged for me again.

It swung at me again with its sword vertically, but this time, I could actually read its mind and predict its movements before it could happen because its helmet was removed. I dodged to the left to avoid the sword and shot the knight's head once with the gun in my right hand. The knight leaned back and paused, but it quickly recuperated and tried to swing at me again but horizontally this time. I ducked under it, moved to the right, and shot its head again with the gun in my left hand. The knight leaned back again, trying to regain its balance, but it was slower trying to this time. While it was off guard, I used both of my guns to aim at its head and shoot the last few bullets I had with me. The knight finally fell backwards and dropped its sword, but it was still breathing, so I picked up the sword that was surprisingly lighter than I thought and pierced it through its armor.

The knight vanished, leaving a Star moonstone and black star sapphire. I picked up the gems and placed them in my pockets like I usually do and then picked up the emerald. Part of it was broken, but it was still glowing. I hope she's still alive, at least. The gates quickly dropped beneath the ground, so I walked outside of the gates before they trapped me again for any reason. I pulled out my phone and was about to call someone, but my phone didn't have any signal to call anyone. Before I could do anything else, I heard loud flapping sounds.

I turned around, and I saw a gigantic raven in the center of the top of the islet. I was about to think that my psychic powers had finally made me insane, but I knew that I wasn't that lucky yet. The raven's presence felt enthralling for a reason, so I walked towards it without a reason. The closer I walked to it, the more tired I felt, and when I was a foot away, I fell down on the bird's wing. The raven flapped the wing to get me onto the center of its back, and then it began to fly out towards the open sea. I felt like that the raven was too familiar from somewhere, but I couldn't remember... I blacked out.

* * *

In the busy streets of Lakeside Town where people walk on the sidewalks to their jobs or to hang out with friends, Brea was walking and playing a game on a mobile device that wasn't her phone. She was bored and didn't have anyone to hang out with, and to her, the arcade was never fun alone.

"Let's see, if I have this one sent out first, I could use inflict poison or paralysis on the enemy team, possible make them take damage for every time they switch out...or maybe I can use one with heavy defense and use the trick room effect-"

"You"

"EHH!?" She shouted loudly.

She pulled the mysterious stranger that spoke to her into the alley next to them so that no one would bump into them as they spoke. She didn't recognize the man that spoke to her because she didn't know anyone with scars, so she was passionately furious. The guy didn't care, and he stood there.

"Hey, who the hell are you, scaring me like that!" She shouted as she jumped down, had her fists clenched, bent forward, and kept her eyes shut, "I don't know you! You gave me a heart attack! I-I..." She stared at the guy confused. "Wait, you don't care at all that I'm shouting?"

"I rarely ever care, remember?" The guy said with a blank expression, "Want to head down to the arcade?"

"Wait a minute, rarely care? Arcade?" Brea jumped and squeaked. She looked at the guy with her eyes wide open as she took a step back, "M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M...M-M-M-M-M-"

"Um...what?" The guy responded, then getting hug-tackled by the girl and was still standing.

"MIKE!" Brea shouted through tears, "It's been 5 months, I...I thought you were dead!"

"Always over-passionate about everything, huh?" I hugged her back because it was the right thing to do without getting smacked by her, "And I _was_ almost dead"

"Almost? You gotta tell me everything!" She demanded.

"But it's a long story" I answered, "And it was a pretty painful thing"

"Well can't you do some kind of telepathic kind of thing? It'll make life easier, I promise!" She suggested desperately. I was starting to think she was too happy that I returned.

"Fine, just this once" I answered as I left my hand out for her to grab. "Grab my hand and you'll see it"

She grabbed my hand before I even finished the sentence. She waited for a couple of seconds, and then both of our eyes glowed brightly. She looked up at the sky as my eyes looked down, and she saw the memories of the Dark Knight I was attacked by in only a couple of seconds. She let go of my hand the second the memory ended, and placed her hand over her head since seeing memories would hurt a lot when not used to it. I was used to it, so I waited for her to get over the pain.

"That hurt..." She said as she bent down, "It was still awesome though! It was like anime in first person!"

"Remind me that I don't want anime in real life anymore, that was hell to begin with" I said as we both started walking to the arcade. "Any new games at the arcade?"

"Oh yeah, Pokken Tournament! C'mon, we need to go!" She shouted as she grabbed my hand.

_**She dragged me and ran all the way to the arcade, even when I asked her to slow down because of how I'm still sore. She didn't listen, but at least things are almost the way it used to be...but something's coming up soon, isn't it?**_

* * *

**_-_**Purple Tanzanite, has the target returned?-

-Target "Michael Kuudama" confirmed to have returned, Chrysoprase. Scarred in one of his eyes, so he'll be in a disadvantage-

-Good, when will we strike?-

-We still need to wait for Yellow Diamond to give us the order-

-Dammit, keep an eye on him until then-

-Yes ma'am-


	6. A few months after Mike's accident

Lakeside town, a town like a city and a place for people to almost do as they please. Brea and Iwould hang out every now and then with Dean, Bloodstone and Black Diamond would converse on topics I wouldn't understand as they wait for Beryl to fully recover, and then there's a raven. That raven flew across the woods around Lakeside Town in search of food and a person. Who the person being searched for could be is just about anyone's guess. I landed on the branch and looked around. It saw a lime greenish orb, so the raven began to stare at it.

A green person came out of it slowly. She was dressed as a cyborg and her hair shaped like a triangle. On her forehead, there was a green, triangle-shaped gem that glowed until she exited the orb. She began to look around. The raven knew exactly who she was and why she was here. Peridot recently crash landed in the middle of the forest after fighting the Crystal Gems alongside Jasper. She looked around to see if there was anything she could do to get out of there.

"Aah, what am I supposed to do now!?" Peridot shouted, "The ship exploded and now I'm lost...curse the Crystal Gems and that 'Steven'"

As Peridot neared the exit of the forest to Lakeside City, she was grabbed by a gray person's arm and was pulled back deep into the forest. The raven followed. When Peridot tried to break free of the grasp, she saw a grey, rigid dagger across her neck.

"F-Florence!" Peridot shouted.

"Kind of, but not, Megaman, and I'm not here for frightened greetings" The female attacker pressed the blade of her dagger onto Peridot's neck. "You're going to tell me _everything_ I need to know"

"Y-Yes!" Peridot shouted with fear.

The raven flew off and left a feather behind. It flew towards Lakeside quickly. It landed on the roof an empty warehouse where the Gem Knights, Bloodstone and Black Diamond, stay after being kicked out of my house by my Dad. In the warehouse, Bloodstone was sitting down and looking at a video of a documentary by a blogger while wearing her trench coat. The topic was about the appearance of a gigantic green hand in the sky. She was heavily concerned.

"You look concerned" Black Diamond said as she swung her sword in the air as practice.

"You've been to homeworld longer than I have, right?" Bloodstone asked, "You know I only showed up there until I was exiled a few hundred years later"

"Hai" Black Diamond answered as she swung again.

"Did they advance in technology? More so than humans?"

"Hai" Black Diamond answered as she swung again. "If you went back now, it would be like a caveman going forward in time to present day Earth"

"So they have had a gigantic ship in the shape of a hand?" Bloodstone asked as she finally looked up at Black Diamond.

Black Diamond paused in the middle of her swing. She stared at Bloodstone and had several questions. Bloodstone took the phone and placed it into one of the pockets in her trench coat.

"I thought that was still a work in progress before I left homeworld" Black Diamond answered.

"It crashed recently, and it might've been because of Rose's army… or at least the final three of them and a hybrid of a gem and human"

"Then an invasion has begun" Black Diamond said to herself aloud. "And they might win this time"

Black Diamond made her sword disappear as she sat down. She crossed her legs and began to meditate. As she meditated, she could sense a presence of a familiar animal, one that she felt a connection with. She immediately got up from the ground and ran out of the warehouse and looked at the roof. She saw the same raven that she commanded to fly away in the middle of the bombing of japan.

"R-Raven? Is that really you?" Black Diamond asked, "It's been decades!"

The raven flew down to the palm of her hand and sat on her gem. It projected light from Black Diamond's hand and turned it into a hologram of what it saw in the woods. Black Diamond saw the encounter between Peridot and the being who claims to kind of be Florence. She smiled to herself as her raven flew onto her shoulder.

"Florence is back..." B.D said to herself as she entered the warehouse, **"...This just got a little more interesting"**

* * *

**Coming in the next few chapters:**

**_New Monsters_**

**_The mysterious bearer of the fluorite_**

**_A member of the mentioned Star Gang._**


	7. What can 60 bucks get you?

_Brea and I were hanging out at the arcade since early this morning, and the time we left was at 2:56 PM. We won a short arcade tournament and got $60 as the reward, making her overly excited as we finally left, but then another event involving the gems, myself, and others happened again. After everything I've been through this past year, I can't say that I didn't expect it._

* * *

As I walked out of the arcade with Brea, I noticed Brea was dancing behind me with a gigantic smile and with the cash in her hand. She was shaking her hands in the air as she was swaying her body left and right, making a complete fool of herself, but neither of us cared in the end. She was too happy about the money we earned just by playing games.

"All in a day's work!" Brea said aloud.

"Is that so?" I said as I looked at the busy road.

"$60 bucks, 30 for both of us, says so!" She blurted out with excitement as she continued to dance and walk.

"Sure" I said as we entered the alley we usually step in to take a break. "So what will you do with your half?"

"Umm… I was gonna by some jewelry, but maybe not" She said as she stopped dancing and handed me 30 bucks and then shuffled through her money, "Maybe I can get a new game"

"Is jewelry not your thing anymore?" I asked, "You usually hang out there to speak with Dean or to get something for yourself"

"No, no no no, I still like jewelry. It's just that the shop— Actually, I'm just getting a game" I heard her hesitate for a moment when she directed her mind on getting a game. She looked away and scratched the back of her head as she made a fake grin.

_She's hiding something_. I thought to myself.

Now that I think about it, my Dad hasn't mentioned how he started to fix my schedule for work hours ever since I came back, kind of like he's been avoiding the subject of work entirely, and the route to the shop has been blocked for a while. The more I stared at Brea, the more uneasy she became. She began to think one thought over and over again very quickly: _I can't say, I can't say, I can't say, I can't say, I can't say, I can't…_

"So what happened at the shop while I was gone for a while?" I asked, "You sound as if you know something serious about it"

"Um…Why did your hair turn white when you returned from the 'islet' you mentioned? You totally never said that!" She began to ramble many subjects so quickly that I couldn't understand a word of it. Her face turned bright red. "I'M NOT WEIRD! YOU ARE! NO GIGANTIC HAMMERS WERE INVOLVED!"

I stared at Brea oddly as she began to sweat uncontrollably and breath hard and loudly. The two words "Gigantic hammers" made me really curious about what happened, considering that I only knew one person who wields such a thing. She looked everywhere other than my direction with her eyes wide open. I shrugged my shoulders.

"You know, you're right. No gigantic hammers were involved. I know that much" I said as she turned to face me again. "It would be foolish of me to believe so"

She took deep breaths as she calmed down. "Y-yeah, none were, I told you that"

I reached out my hand in the form of a handshake. "Want to forget about this?"

"Yeah," She finally calmed down, "I do"

She shook my hand as I stared into her eyes. She began to speak quickly again.

"You know, I thought you didn't like handshakes" She said as she continued to shake my hand, "I mean, the only reason why you would grab someone else's hand was to see their-WAIT A SEC!"

_Got you…_ I thought to myself. The past cannot hide from me. Our eyes glowed a bright white as I looked into her past. At first, it seemed normal, Brea speaking to other guy who worked there, Dean, as she looked around. But it all changed a few moments after she bumped into that mysterious woman.

I saw a person with a gigantic hammer appear, but she looked nothing like Bloodstone. She wore a dark purple leather jacket, like her hammer, and the hammer was spiked, like a gigantic mallet. If she was Bloodstone, she would have also recognized Brea from their encounter when Brea and I encountered the corrupted Ruby being a spider. She didn't pull that hammer out of her forearm, but her shoulder. I saw the vision in first-person, so before I could get a better look at the person who completely destroyed the shop, Brea turned away from her and ran away. This person wasn't who I thought it was, but it's clear that she's another gem.

I let go of Brea's hand to stop seeing through her memories. I couldn't make sense of anything that happened other than seeing that woman destroy my shop. Her gem looked purple, but I couldn't really tell what it was through Brea's memories. Brea shook her head to gain focus, and then she slapped me. I covered my cheek and continued to give her the blank stare I usually give people.

"Jerk! That was uncalled for!" She shouted.

"You know this is something of importance, and I needed to know what happened" I said.

"I relived that moment again!" Brea said as she was about to smack me a second time.

Before the back of her hand could touch me, I grabbed her forearm to catch the strike. However, something was off. I felt something solid there, probably her watch. Brea instantly jerked her arm away from me and placed her arms behind her back. She made a fake cough and looked away.

"So, it's 3:00, yeah? What should we do?" Brea asked as she looked at me.

I was about to continue to question her about the day the jewelry shop was destroyed, but I decided to drop it. "We went to the arcade, grabbed a bite or two in between," I said aloud as I thought, "You know, maybe we should get a new game"

"'ey, what're you doin' here boi?" Someone else in the alley asked, "Dis is au turf"

Brea and I turned to see who was there. There were three teenagers in the alley other than us. They wore hoods, had leather gloves, one had a switchblade ready, they were here for trouble. They walked over to us with grins or a sadistic look in their eye.

"Psst, Mike, I thought this was the empty alley as usual" Brea whispered to me.

"It is" I whispered back, "It's the only one near the arcade"

"Wot, talkin' 'bout us?" The first one asked with a questionable and terrible accent.

"I say we teach them a lesson, boss" The second and tall one suggested.

"Unless they give us some cash they just won at the arcade" The fourth one, the one with the scar and a deep voice, said as he walked towards me. "$60 bucks and you're free to leave"

"Forget that, I don't even know who you are" Brea rejected as a no-brainer. "I don't lend money to anyone"

"Boss always gets what he wants" The tall one said as he stepped forward.

"Yeah, now 'and i' over, me fair lass" The accented one said as he stepped forward. I _think _he said 'hand it over'

The tall one pointed his switchblade at Brea as the accented one pushed her back with one hand. Before Brea fell, I caught her and got her steady on her feet. The three people laughed and advanced. I shook my head and stepped forward.

"Brea, we'll meet up later" I said.

"Wait, you're asking me to leave?" She asked as she puffed her cheeks.

"No, I'm _telling_ you to leave" I answered. "Things are gonna get pretty ugly. Uglier than that guy's accent"

Brea ran off reluctantly as I stared down the leader with my arms crossed. The leader of the pathetic excuse of a gang laughed as his two lackeys stood next to him with his arms crossed.

"Get 'Brea' and all of her money" He ordered. "I don't care if she dies"

"Got it, sir" The accented one said as he ran to catch Brea.

Before he could run past me, I swept his legs with a kick and made his face hit the concrete ground first. He slowly got up, but then I pressed my foot on the back of his head and made him unable to breath. I stared at the others with a glare. The tall guy was obviously intimidated as the leader stared back at me.

"This can end two different ways, kid" The leader said to me. "We get the money, and you get the hell out of here, or you and your friend die"

"You know I can see the future right? I just don't like it because it's always a hazy vision" I answered as I pressed on the accented guy's head. "There's a chance one of you dies, another chance we get arrested, and either way, you guys get beaten up, possibly die from a knife that I don't have, and not get the money you'd want"

"A load of crap" The leader insulted.

"Talking about that guy's accent?" I asked as I stomped on the accented kid's head to make sure he stays on the ground for a good minute. "Totally a load of crap"

"Me bleeding nose!" The accented one said with his voice muffled by the ground. "You broke me bleeding nose!"

I stomped on the back of the person's head a second time and made the man fall unconscious. The taller person glared at me as I stared at him with my blank expression, which kind of scared him that he couldn't scare me. The leader of that gang, with fear, pushed the taller person forward towards me without notice, making the tall guy off-guard, so I punched him in the stomach and walked past him. The punch was so hard that he stood for a few seconds with his hands on his stomach before falling to the ground. The leader backed away from me and to the wall behind him. While the leader was backed into the wall behind him, I took out both of my guns and pointed it at him.

"You are pathetic, you know" I said to them, "I'm starting to believe that you're not a gang at all"

"Hey, who's pathetic here?" The leader asked as he smiled.

I looked into his thoughts to see while he was smiling, revealing his plan. _This robot kid thinks he's everything, doesn't he? I mean, he didn't even notice that A's right behind him-_

I was about to turn around to stop the other attacker, but before I could stop him, I was punched across the face with a brass knuckle, one of the most painful things to be punched with. I fell to the ground and covered my left cheek, pretty sure it was damaged or broken, one of the two. I saw the accented kid standing over me with his brass knuckles and the leader with his switchblade. The leader raised his switchblade and thrusted it down the same time the accented kid threw a punch at me. I thought I was done for, but this wasn't the first time I thought it was...

But suddenly, two gray daggers appeared over me and blocked both of their weapons before they could land on me. The two gang members were startled, so they jumped back. I saw a person appear over me as if she was invisible the entire time. She had her back turned, so I couldn't see her face. She had white, spiky hair and wore pants and casual clothing, kind of like me but not.

"Hey, who're you!?" The leader shouted in fear.

"..." The person didn't respond.

She vanished and reappeared behind the leader and held a dagger to his neck. The accented guy tried to punch her while she was open, so she turned with the leader and used him as a shield. The leader was knocked out and his jaw was broken by that one punch, so the woman threw his body at the accented guy. The accented guy was caught off guard and was headbutted in the nose by the unconscious leader, and he began to cover his nose because it was still damaged from when I stomped on the back of his head into the floor. When he crouched down, the woman vanished and reappeared behind him to stab him in the back. The accented person cried out in pain as he stood up straight, and then he fell to the ground.

I read the thoughts of the accented person, and none of them were positive. _No, no no no! I can't die now, I can't! My..my eyes can't stay open and I...can't...breathe!.._ After those words, his thoughts stopped. He exhaled longly as the daggers disappeared from his back. The woman vanished, grabbed my guns and put them in my pockets, and then reappeared in front of me. She grabbed my shoulder and became invisible again, and when I tried to shake my arm free, I noticed my arm was gone too.

"Freeze!" Someone shouted from the entrance of the alley.

That person was a police officer, and he had his gun pointed at the end of the alley. He swiftly turned to the left and the right of the alley to find anyone, but he saw no one except for a beat up person, a dead person, and an unconscious person. He placed his gun into his holster and reached for the walkie-talkie strapped to his chest.

Before I heard him say anything, I felt the woman jump high while still grabbing me onto the flat rooftop near the alley and far from the cops. I landed on my feet and knelt down. She let go of my arm and reappeared, and so did I. I placed my guns in my pockets and looked up to the woman. She had long, straight hair and a gray hoodie with some black jeans. She stared at me with one hand in her pocket.

"You...you're Michael Kuudama" She stated.

"Um...yeah" I said as I stood up, "I can't say I know anything of you other than your a gem?"

"...Kind of a gem" She said as she rolled up her sleeves. On her forearms were two gray gems that were familiar to me by now even though I've only seen them a few times: Fluorites.

_**Okay, too many things are happening. Gangs attacking, an actual death that I had witnessed, and to top it off, someone who's most-likely to be fluorite. I knew I shouldn't have been gone for too long…**_

* * *

Notes from the authors:

Mike: We're back after a while, I guess.

Khan: Sorry for the wait, everyone! Owner of this account was a bit upset recently for a personal reason, so we couldn't post stuff for a long while.

Damon: We'll sort of be back on for a while even though we have school things, so yeah. And not to forget, we would like a review of some kind to see if this is likeable so far if it isn't too much to ask, you know? Just sayin..

Mike: Alright, everyone, keep writing and reading.


	8. It get's you a war That's what

_There was a momentary pause between us. The wind blew hard on the rooftop as we looked at each other in the eyes. I didn't know what to do, and I couldn't read her mind for some reason. I knew for sure that she was one of the most dangerous people according to Black Diamond and Bloodstone, so I instantly caught my breath and reached for my two guns, but before I could pull them out, there was a dagger at my neck and another at my stomach. She stared at me with a blank glare as I moved my hands away from my guns. She made her daggers disappear and looked at me oddly._

"I am not who you think I am, Michael" She stated.

"You can turn invisible and summon two daggers" I responded, "That's trademarked to Fluorite, or Florence, I believe"

"She is my mother, a part of me, but not me" She said, "I doubt you would understand"

"I don't-" I said before I felt a presence of someone else. "Someone's-"

She grabbed me again as she covered my mouth and we both became invisible. Another gem landed on the roof with a black Raven on her shoulder. It was none other than the cold-blooded samurai gem in her black and purple kimono, Black Diamond. She looked around with her katana held with both of her hands, ready to fight. I stopped breathing and so did the woman with me.

Black Diamond turned rapidly in different directions with her eyes looking left and right swiftly as she looked around. She closed her eyes, and her raven's eyes began to glow. The Raven looked directly at me even though I was invisible. Through its eyes, it saw both me and the woman, and it looked like I was a hostage. Black Diamond opened her eyes that glowed along with the raven's and was able to see me as well as the woman. Black Diamond dashed towards me and swung her sword diagonally in a way that would almost hit me and would definitely hit the woman.

The woman dodged it simply by leaning her head to the right. She pushed me away from her and reappeared as she crossed her arms and faced Black Diamond. Black Diamond smiled, made her Raven fly away, and continued to swing at her with multiple strikes. Black Diamond's swings were faster than the time that she fought me, so fast that I could only foresee the strikes but not actually see them, but her speed didn't matter. The woman dodged every strike without effort, simply turning her body or leaning left and right. When Black Diamond tried to stab the woman through her stomach, the woman caught it by clapping her hands. The woman pulled it out of Black Diamonds hands and tossed it to the far side of the rooftop.

"Huh, skilled as ever," Black Diamond complimented, "I have gotten better throughout the years as well!"

"You talk as if you know me…" The woman responded.

Black Diamond made her sword disappear from over there and reappear to her hand. She swung it three more times until the woman caught the back of the katana with her hand. She stared at Black Diamond with one normal eye and a gray colored eye. Reading Black Diamond's mind, I could tell she was confused because she thought that the woman would have had two gray eyes.

"I'm not who you're talking about, only her half human child" The woman said, "Her half-human/half-gem fusion child"

"Wait, that is possible?" Black Diamond's smile turned into a shocked expression.

While Black Diamond was off guard, the woman raised her leg and kicked Black Diamond across her face and grabbed the katana out of Black Diamond's hands. The woman continued to kick Black Diamond like a professional martial artist, spinning for a better impact as she kicked, and every kick made a loud crashing kind of sound because they were strong hits. Black Diamond was turned around by one of the kicks, so while Black Diamond's back was turned, the woman kicked the back of Black Diamond's knees and then roundhouse kicked the side of her head. Black Diamond crashed into the ground of the roof next to her, and she slowly tried to get up. The woman waited for her impatiently and seemed very annoyed at her.

Black Diamond got up from the ground, but she didn't seem like she was in any condition to fight for a while. BD was having a hard time trying to look at the woman, and she couldn't stand straight. The woman swept Black Diamond off of her feet with a kick aimed for her legs and stepped on her chest. She pointed Black Diamond's blade at Black Diamond herself and then thrusted through her chest. Black Diamond vanished as well as her sword and turned into her gem. The woman picked up the gem and tossed it to me. She didn't look satisfied with the fight at all.

"If this is all you and the Gem Knights have, then your chances against invading gems are going to be slim to none, Michael" The woman said as she walked off, "Some of them were sort of dealt with by Garnet and two or three others from a disbanded army, but there's another wave coming to a different location to change the tide. They will land somewhere around here in Lakeside town to start the invasion and continue their plans"

And after she said that, she vanished. I could hear her running off the roof and then jumping very high, but then I couldn't hear her anymore. I picked up the black diamond and was about to put it in my pocket until Black Diamond popped out of it again. She had her hand over her face in disappointment, probably because of her failure to win. I sat down from where I was and waited for her to say something.

"So Beryl was right after all," Black Diamond said, "She really did have a half-breed child"

"Beryl? Is she back?" I asked.

"Yes, since this morning after you left on your date with Brea" Black Diamond answered.

"That wasn't a date-"

She ignored me completely. "She left recently to call on some 'old friends' of hers to help her fight off an invasion, but I do not know who they are, and she will be gone for a while. Again"

"What invasion?"

Black Diamond's raven landed on her shoulder and spread its wings wide open. The raven projected a hologram of a gigantic hand. The hand looked like it wasn't ever attached to a whole arm, and it looked mechanical, more like a ship instead.

"What does a hand have to do with an invasion?" I asked.

"This hand you see is actually a large and mechanically advanced ship that could destroy quite a bit of land and is heavily resilient to your earthly weapons" Black Diamond. "Two of them were deployed: One near Beach City a while ago, and the other one has yet to be found. The invasion starting in Beach City failed because our former sisters-in-arms, other gems, had prevailed after boarding the ship; however, if they were to attack us here, more lives would be at stake, and even if the Gem Knights could fight them off, the untrusting humans would attack us for being like them, bringing us into a battle that would inadvertently break our agreement of protecting you with our lives"

Black Diamond began to rant about the war and possibilities of the war, and I was able to semi-understand it all. So people from another planet who are like us but are better than all of us in a physical aspect but are genderless/female are invading, and the chances are that we're screwed, no matter if the government gets involved. Honestly, I could expect something like that happening due to recent events. As if my life wasn't going to get any weirder than it already was…

"How large of an invasion?" I asked, trying to get the only details I can, "How many people are invading?"

"On our end, only two" She answered, "I cannot tell who else"

"Two?" At first, I thought she was being sarcastic, but then I remembered that people like them don't really need so many to take over a planet with their abilities. "You, Bloodstone, and Beryl outnumber them"

"Beryl has left and won't be back for who knows how long, and I know the two people that are coming after us; they're two of the strongest 50 people that I have seen wander our homeworld" She answered, "However, she doesn't have her left arm thanks to that fight you both went through against Star Quartz, dammit"

Black Diamond began to pace back and forth while she was thinking about what to do. I could feel the fear that came from her and could see her moving her shoulders uncomfortably. Her thoughts only included words like 'What to do, what to do'. She stopped pacing and faced me with her head down, and honestly, seeing her like this was a bit annoying, so I walked up to her and placed my hand on her shoulder.

"B.D?" I called.

She looked up to me with tears down her eyes, unsure about what to do about the invasion. I had never seen this side of her before, never. In response, I patted her shoulder twice and then flicked her forehead. She bounced back in shock and covered her forehead while waiting for an explanation, but all I did was shrug and look back at her. She was speechless afterwards.

"What the hell was that for?" She shouted through tears.

"Because this isn't what you should do, never mind that that's not even you" I answered. "If you need to prepare, then prepare, but no one's ready for what's to come, not even me. The scar on my eye proves it"

She stopped crying, but she still looked like she was in distraught of some kind. "How can I prepare?" She asked, "I do not know where to even start"

"Honestly, I don't know" I said as I looked down on the people of the busy streets of the town, "But if you cry and panic your way through it, you'll never be prepared for what comes next, you know? That's how the people who walk on the streets now progress into whatever comes next, whether it's a promotion, a job, deaths, or even if it's just a new friend. I'm not a gem or anything, but doesn't that same kind of rule apply to your kind as well?"

"I...screw self pity" Black Diamond said as she wiped the tears off of her face, "You are right, I will see if there is anything I can do to prevent the invasion from becoming large-scale or if I can stop it entirely" She walked away towards the edge of the roof. "Arigato gozaimasu"

Black Diamond jumped off of the building and landed on her two feet without pain. She blended into the crowd easily despite her appearance and continued to proceed towards the warehouse to regroup with Bloodstone. I sat down and layed my back onto the flat roof. I felt pretty exhausted after that whole half-hour, and I honestly didn't feel like getting up again for a while, especially after rapid changes in altitude. I received a phone call from Brea.

"Hello?" I asked as I answered.

"Um...did someone...die?" She asked without any energy in her voice.

"Unfortunately, and I didn't do it this time" I answered.

"Okay, that's a relief I guess, knowing your combat skills" Brea said as she took a deep breath, but then I heard her gasp again through the phone again, "'_This time'_?"

"Hold on, I have to go" I said as I hung up the phone.

I proceeded to the edge of the building where I wouldn't see flashing red and blue lights surrounding a crime area and looked down. There was another empty alley that only had a trashcan aligned to the wall and a dark cat that slept on it. I turned around and jumped backwards, and I then grabbed onto the ledge of a boarded window to make sure I didn't fall to my death. I then let go of the ledge and landed on my feet and finally proceeded into blending into the crowd. I held my hand over my jaw and continued to walk, wondering if I was going to be mentioned by the gang members at all.

My phone rang again from an unknown number this time.

"Hello?" I asked.

"Michael, this is Beryl" She responded, "I'll be back soon. I just tried to get help from some of the gems that aren't corrupted and are on our side, but it failed"

"You heard about the invasion as well?"

"Yes, the invasion" She answered with a little bit of hesitation, "I won't lie. You might not survive this. These two people invading are Chrysoprase and Tanzanite, professional fighting gems that I can't beat alone. Not only that, but they will be accompanied by other gems"

"What are they like?"

"One uses a mace, and the other uses a large battleaxe" She answered, "And if we're lucky enough, they won't ask for purple tanzanite's help as well"

"Is she the one with that spiked hammer?" I asked, "Has that gem on her shoulder?"

I heard her gasp through the phone, meaning I was right. "How did you know!?" She shouted as she began to run and talk.

"She was in a friend's memory, and she was looking for me, saying my full name and everything" I answered, "I'm screwed again, aren't I"

"More or less, you are" She answered, "She's a mercenary on homeworld, and if she's asking for your name, you are either a dead person or a person who at least knows something and will be taken in for capture. If you do not know anything, she… she might take your life in exchange"

"Figures"

"Wait, was this a memory of months before you returned?" She asked, "If you're lucky, she had probably left a while ago"

"I could tell that the memory was actually a week or two before I returned, so probably not" I answered, "I just hope no one says my full name until then"

"Okay then, I will see you around, but there was one thing I wanted to say to you before I end this call" She said, it sounded important.

"What was it?" I asked.

"I...on that island, islet, whatever you want to call it, I was only cold because I didn't know if you would be useful or not," She said regretfully, "I was mistaken, so I'm… I'm sorry"

"Not really. I'm still human, weak and all" I answered as a walked, "Am I not?"

She chuckled for 2 seconds, the longest I've ever heard her happy at all. "I'm beginning to doubt even that" She said as she hung up.

I continued to walk with my hand over my jaw, sure that it was broken. As I walked, I looked up news articles on my phone of things that had happened while I was away, and it seemed like nothing important had happened. Only a new building was made and that a new gang had started to form in Lakeside, but I know that the gang won't be doing too much now because of their lost member. At least I hope that's the case, but even if that is, I know that I still have to prepare for the upcoming invasion.

_**This invasion better be like how invasions are in my games where humans survive and there are minimal damage, but it's not going to be anything like that, is it? Hell…**_

* * *

Authors here!

**Mike: **Hello, everyone. To those who follow this story, it has been a while, and we apologize.

**Damon: **Yup, sorry, it's kind of hard to write this story, study for school, and talk to each other from other states to continue this, you know? Especially since Khan left... But we can still do this though because we have to stay determined!

**Mike:** ...Why was determined underlined?

**Damon:** I guess it's because we haven't written in a while and also that we don't want people reading this to have a bad time?

**Mike:** I don't get it, but whatever. Anyway...

_**KEEP ON WRITING!**_

_P.S, author's notes by us are written by a recording of us after talking, and then we add stuff for fun, get rid of unneeded stuff, etc. Someone asked, so we're answering. -Damon_


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